


Deer in Deadlights

by Brittle_Bone_Gabe



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Angst, Deadlights (IT), Delusions, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Fluff and Angst, Gay Disaster Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, IT Chapter Two Spoilers, M/M, Movie: IT Chapter Two (2019), Oneshot, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21786694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brittle_Bone_Gabe/pseuds/Brittle_Bone_Gabe
Summary: Canon-swap where Eddie gets hit with the Deadlights instead of Richie.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 117





	Deer in Deadlights

Eddie and Richie stumbled through the cave, escaping those cursed _not scary at all, scary,_ or _very scary_ doors which they couldn’t stop thinking about. Were the doors switched? Should they have just picked the _scary_ door and they would’ve been okay? Eddie wouldn’t stop going on and on and on about how they should’ve picked the middle door, and that’s what they would do next time if it happened again. _If._ Richie had to grab Eddie’s hand out of protective instinct, dragging him out of the small cave to get back up to where the action was. 

The flashing lights stunned Richie for a minute, trying to readjust his eyes to the new lighting. He saw the giant fucking Pennywise spider-bitch taunting the other Losers. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, what to do? What could he do?_ Richie could feel Eddie step up next to him, he put a hand on Eddie’s chest to stop him from moving any further. He didn’t need Eddie to get hurt. 

Pennywise grabbed Mike, wrapping itself tight around him, a spike coming from the hold as It started laughing menacingly in a deep, low, demonic tone. The glowing orange eyes It produced glowed through the cave, so when the lights were dimmed again none of the Losers would lose sight of where It was. 

“ _I know what you are,”_ Pennywise told Mike in almost a singsong voice, laughing again before getting closer. “ _A mad man...”_ It’s voice echoed, giving It time to unhinge It’s jaws, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth that Mike could only assume would cause his demise. 

Richie and Eddie’s hearts were pounding against their chests. They were trying to think on their feet, what could they do to help? They needed to help. There was no way they could let him die, not after he brought them all back together, even if he didn’t tell them exact reason he was bringing them together, but they owed him this. Fuck. 

Richie started looking around, trying to find something he could use to distract Pennywise, to get It to drop his friend. Eddie had no idea what Richie was doing when he was feeling around on the floor of the cave, moving his hands around as if he dropped something. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” Eddie hissed, pressing his back against the cave wall the best he could to stay out of Pennywise’s sight if possible. “Richie, stop, come here.” He saw Richie pick up a couple of large rocks that had fallen from around them. “Rich, don’t!” 

Richie mumbled a _it’ll be okay, Eds,_ over his shoulder before throwing the rock he was currently holding as hard as he could across the air. Thankfully, it smacked Pennywise in the face, causing It to turn to face him, distracting him away from Mike. 

“Hey, fuckface!” Richie yelled, holding on tightly to the flashlight that was still in his left hand as he was trying to push down all the anxiety from his chest, resisting the urge to throw up. 

Pennywise threw Mike a short distance, hitting the cave way and rolling onto his side as he was trying to recover the air that was pushed from his lungs due to the impact. The Losers were all watching Richie with wide eyes, not sure what the fuck his plan was supposed to be, but if he didn’t have one then this wasn’t going to end up going well. Eddie was panicking, he wanted to grab Richie, to pull him back down the cave with the freaky doors so they would get away from Pennywise the goddamn Clown. He couldn’t handle It in It’s spider form alone like this. What was Richie thinking? 

Reaching down, Richie grabbed another rock that he had collected and saved for the next round of this little rock war.

“Wanna play Truth or Dare?” Richie yelled at It, “Here’s the truth. You’re a sloppy bitch!”

Eddie looked up at the hole in the center of the cave, seeing blue lights flare up brighter than before. Richie didn’t seem to notice, as he was too busy taunting and throwing bad insults at the creature. Eddie’s seen that before... something similar at least before Beverly got hit with the... _Deadlights._ No, no, no, no. That was not going to happen. Not to Richie. Not when Eddie had the power to get him out of the way. 

“Yippee Ki yay, motherfuck-” Richie was cut off when Eddie shoved him out of the way, accidentally causing him to stumble to the cave floor. 

When Richie sat up on his elbows, readjusting his glasses, he let out a small gasp when he saw the Deadlights hitting Eddie. From where he was, he couldn’t see it, but Eddie’s eyes were completely white as he was being lifted off the ground. Pennywise’s face had been replaced with only It’s mouth, producing the Deadlights that was coming from the lights above It’s head. 

“Eddie?!” Richie called, even though he knew that it wouldn’t do any good. He managed to look over at the other Losers, who were just in a state of shock as he was and had no idea what they could possibly do. 

_Eddie woke up, laying on his back in a completely empty black room, the only source of light was unknown, but he was able to see a small distance around himself, but whenever he tried looking outside the light there was nothing. Completely nothing. He sat up, reaching his hand up to his left cheek, there was no longer a bandage there, there wasn’t a wound there either. Wait, he did get stabbed, didn’t he? Stabbed by Bowers in his shower with a stupid little pocket knife?_

_Or was it all a dream?_

_He forced himself to stand up, his legs wobbly, as if he hadn’t walked at all for hours. Was he still in the cave? No... if he was then the blinding flashing blue lights would be all around him - straining his eyes. Eddie couldn’t help but rub his eyes, they were burning, almost feeling as if they were on fire._

_“Guys? Hey, guys?” Eddie called out, thinking that maybe the Losers could still be around. Maybe they could find him and guide him out of... wherever he currently was.  
_

_Nothing._

_Eddie took his first step, almost wobbling over as he did. How long has he been asleep? Was he even asleep? The only thing he could remember was Richie... who he was taunting Pennywise. Throwing rocks at him. Wait, or was that something that happened when they were kids? He certainly remembered Richie starting some kinda rock war when they were kids, so Eddie was probably thinking of that._

_Myra... oh, god, Myra... was she real too? His memory was hazy, but the only thing he could think of about her was constant arguments and screaming matches. Matches that eventually Eddie would back down from since he didn’t like confrontation at all, so it wasn’t worth it to him to keep going at it. It seemed as though Eddie’s whole life was a constant string of people making him do things he didn’t want to do, telling him what to do, and never thought about what he wanted._

_Hell, maybe being here for the rest of his life wouldn’t be so bad. Eddie wasn’t feeling any anxiety, there wasn’t anything here that was making him panic about his health, nobody was screaming or yelling him about something stupid. It was almost like a warm blanket was wrapped around Eddie, a comfort-type feeling that he didn’t want to leave behind. Why couldn’t he feel this way all the time? It was great._

_Grumbling and stumbling back a bit, Eddie started rubbing his eyes again. The constant burning wasn’t gone yet, and he felt like it wasn’t going away anytime soon._

_When he looked up there was a tall, dark figure in front of him. A figure he felt like he should’ve known but couldn’t place anything to it, a bit harder since it didn’t have a face. Eddie tilted his head to the side, slowly moving his way over to whatever that figure was. Probably not the smartest idea, but being here alone... he needed to know what else was here with him._

_“_ Eddie?” Richie called out to his friend who was more or less stumbling around, constantly rubbing his eyes. “Eds, hey...” 

When Richie had thrown the spear that Eddie had dropped when shoving him out of the way, Pennywise had let out a scream, dropping him to the cave floor. Richie had been sure Eddie broke something from the fall, but when he pulled himself up all on his own it shocked him. Eddie finally dropped the hands from his face, looking at Richie for the first time since being in the Deadlights. Richie’s eyes went wide, keeping the gasp trapped in his throat when he saw that Eddie’s large, brown eyes were replaced as they were still completely white. _You’re not in the Lights anymore, what the fuck?_ Richie thought, backing up, making sure he didn’t trip on any of the rocks he couldn’t see. 

_As Eddie approached the figure, it became clear who- what it was._

_Pennywise. That son of a bitch. The thing that fucking tormented him his entire childhood. Causing him to always look over his shoulder no matter who up until the day he left Derry, Maine. Although It was different. It looked scared. Weak. Oh yeah, Eddie could kill It on his own._

_Something bright caught Eddie’s eye at his feet. When he looked down, he saw a similar spear that he had been caring around, the one he believed that could kill monsters if only he thought it did. The one he had planned to use on Pennywise this entire time. Reaching down, Eddie grabbed it, holding it tightly in his balled up hand before looking back up at Pennywise._

_“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Eddie basically growled as he continued to move forward.  
_

“No, no, no, no!” Richie said quickly, holding his hands up slightly to show that he wasn’t a danger at all to Eddie. “Eds! Eddie!” 

“ _You stupid fucking clown...”_

 _“_ Eddie! It’s me! Richie! Trashmouth!” 

_Trashmouth. Eddie heard that in Richie’s voice, but he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to fall for that, not for Pennywise’s tricks. A part of Eddie wanted to believe that it was actually Richie, but seeing the clown right in front of him made it hard. ...but why would It be afraid of him?_

_“Richie...” Eddie mumbled, gripping the small spear tighter. “You’re not Richie.”  
_

_“_ I am Richie. Look at these stupid fucking glasses!” Richie held up his glasses so Eddie could see it, but it didn’t do much good. He quickly put them back so he could actually see what was going on around him. “C’mon, Eds, you gotta snap out of it!” 

“ _Stop calling me Eds!” Eddie yelled, throwing the spear as hard as he could towards Pennywise. The clown moved out of the way just before the weapon could pierce his chest. Thankfully it grazed him, slicing his arm open as it zoomed passed him._

Richie hissed in pain, putting his hand over the wound on the opposite arm, blood quickly oozing in between his fingers. Well, if anything, it was a good thing that Eddie no longer had a weapon on him. That meant he could snap him out of this, right? 

“Eddie, c’mon,” Richie stopped moving backwards, lunging forward to grab onto the smaller man. “Wake up!” He started smacking his face lightly to hopefully get him to wake up. 

“ _Do not fucking touch me!” Eddie screamed, trying to claw his way out of Pennywise’s arms but he didn’t have long enough finger nails to do any damage, so It wasn’t effected by this at all._

_Just having the clown this close to him made Eddie want to puke. All he could think of was the shapes and creatures It could turn into. The years of hell that It put him and the Losers through. Sure, It was gone back then, but the Losers never stopped thinking or worrying about it, waiting for It to show back up again to cause chaos._

Richie didn’t know how else to get him to stop, he didn’t know how to snap him out of the Deadlights that were apparently still effecting him even though he couldn’t see the source anymore. He could see the Losers working tirelessly to try to get Pennywise to shrink back into a form so they could actually kill It. Maybe once It was defeated Eddie would be okay, but Richie couldn’t bear to see his best friend like this anymore. 

He grabbed Eddie’s arms, forcing him to lay down on the floor of the cave, straddling him so he could have better control on keep Eddie from ripping out his throat. The smaller man was trying as hard as he could to push Richie off of him, but wasn’t working. Richie managed to pin Eddie’s arm underneath his legs, boxing Eddie in. 

“Stop! Calm down!” Richie shouted, shaking Eddie’s shoulders the most he could from their position. “Hey... hey...” Richie’s shaky hands reached up, gently grabbing either side of Eddie’s face. “Shh... Eddie, focus. You gotta get out of this, okay? I’m taking you to Chicago. Just you and me, we’re going and I’m gonna show you the sights. Hell, you can be side stages at my shows if you want, I don’t give a fuck, you just have to come back to me.” 

“ _Get off!” Eddie screamed, his eyes shut tight, thrashing his head side to side._

 _“_ Please, Eddie,” Richie was almost in tears as this point. He didn’t know what else to do. He reached up, taking the glasses off his own face before putting them on Eddie’s. He remembered when Eddie would take his glasses when they shared the hammock when they were kids, commenting on how blind he was. 

Richie climbed off Eddie, sitting cross legged next to him. The moment he did, Eddie opened his eyes, still white at this point but stared out the lenses. 

_The black room was crumbling around him, bright blue lights surrounding him now as he couldn’t help when his eyes narrowed. He looked at the figure sitting next to him, he didn’t see it as Pennywise anymore, but as... Richie. Richie was sitting next to him. Another wave of comfort washed over him as he held out his hand to the taller man, who grabbed it in a heartbeat, a worried look on his face._

_“Richie?” He mumbled. Richie wasn’t able to hear or understand him.  
_

“Eddie? Hey...” Richie reached down, pushing the hair that was sticking to Eddie’s forehead. 

“Richie...” Eddie squeezed his eyes tight, his eyes suddenly burning more intensely once more. “Is this real?” He almost whimpered, opening his eyes again. 

The pure white eyes were now filled back with their usual dark brown. Richie let out a huge sigh of relief, the tears finally fell. He slipped an arm underneath Eddie’s shoulders, wrapping the other arm around him as he brought Eddie up to press him against his chest as he cried. Actually cried. Something Richie hasn’t done in years. 

Eddie’s eyes rolled in the back of his head, suddenly feeling light headed and just wanted to sleep. 

“Hey, Eds. C’mon, man,” Richie said loudly, giving him a small shake. Eddie jumped, opening his eyes to look back up at Richie, a sad smile on his face. “Are you okay? What...” Richie stopped, suddenly not being able to form words. He jumped when Eddie reached up, putting a hand on his face. “You saved me...” he finally said.

“You saved _me,_ Trashmouth,” Eddie said before coughing. 

“Of course I did... I...I l-”

“Richie, I love you,” Eddie blurted out before Richie could come out with his own confession. When Eddie looked up at his face he was upset, as Richie didn’t look too happy. 

“You dick!” Richie said loudly, “I was _just_ about to say that! Couldn’t you have waited like 10 more seconds before-”

Richie was cut off again when Eddie pulled himself up, pressing his cold lips against Richie’s. He was caught off guard at first, kicking himself that the first time he kissed Eddie he had tears stained on his cheeks, he was a mess, they were in a fucking cave with their best friends screaming _clown_ at a fucking monster. They should be over there helping, but... Richie couldn’t force himself to leave this moment. He closed his eyes, bringing Eddie closer as he deepened the kiss. 

“Did you mean it?” Eddie said after pulling away, looking into Richie’s eyes. 

“...Huh?” Honestly Richie was dazed from the kiss, not at all expecting that. 

“Taking me Chicago? You’d take me?” 

“Please. I want you to come with me. I’ll pay, just... come with me.” 

“Deadlights...” Eddie mumbled, pressing his head against Richie’s chest, “am I still in them?”

“No. This is real. Watch.” He reached over, pinching Eddie’s arm, he let out a yelp. “See? Real!”

Eddie took off Richie’s glasses that were still on his face, holding them in a way that made Richie panic. “I will break your stupid fucking glasses, I swear to god, Trashmouth!” 

“You can break my glasses at home in Chicago.” 


End file.
